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Linden Lab guns for service-based Second Life viewers
Service-based viewers for Second Life are a little different to the standard kind of viewer software that users might be used to. Standard viewers are downloaded to your PC, run on them and talk directly to the servers. Service-based viewers (also sometimes referred to as 'cloud-based') are either running on a remote server through a web interface, or running on a cloud (or other remote system) and sending data and graphics to a thin client that you run locally. The ill-fated Vollee client was one such example, and Comverse is another. Most Some of the (relatively few) extant viewers for mobile devices (iPhones, iPads, et al), and web-based Second Life viewers like AJAX Life are service-based viewers (as are a number in development), and Linden Lab seems bent on closing them down.
Intel technology research may lead to mobile WoW
The idea of mobile MMORPGs has come up before. Blizzard is on board with the idea of a mobile WoW interface of some sort, and have even hired mobile engineers and designers. Second Life has started down the path too. Still, for all the promise of being able to run Deadmines while you're stuck in the back of a car on a cross country drive, or churning out Netherweave Bags while you're waiting at the clinic for your semi-annual medical checkup, it seems like there's hurdles yet to overcome. The biggest one, of course, is getting a mobile device to pack enough power to render WoW's graphics and keep track of all the information that WoW needs to run. Luckily, it looks like Intel and Comverse are on the case for us. The two companies have worked together to create a 3D streaming system that compiles and renders all the graphics and data of an MMORPG on a central server, then sends it to the mobile device. You can read their researcher's post about it on the Intel blog site. You can also see the process demonstrated with Second Life in the video above, although there's not really a good shot of the mobile device screen to show us how well it actually works, unfortunately. Still, if they can get the technology working feasibly, it should definitely put us one giant step closer to a relatively full fledged mobile WoW client. When the day comes that we can grind dailies on our iPhones, it may be that we'll have Intel to thank. [Thanks to Bitterzoet for the tip!]
Fugitive's Skype call leads to his arrest
Here's a tip for all you privacy freaks out there: Skype isn't nearly as secure as you might think. Just ask Kobi Alexander, wanted by the Feds on charges of financial fraud, who was nabbed found by a private investigator earlier this week. Moshe Buller, the private investigator who's been trying to locate Alexander, tracked him down when Alexander's Skype call was traced to a computer in Sri Lanka. Alexander, the former CEO of the scandal-ridden Comverse, had been on the lam from U.S. authorities for a few weeks, and at one point his mugshot graced the website of the FBI. But fear not security-mongers, our friends at Ars link to a year-old study out from George Mason University that says that VoIP can be secured. Or not.Update: Ryan points out in the comments that Bloomberg News is reporting that Alexander may have left Sri Lanka before actually being arrested.Update 2: We traded emails with the Bloomberg News reporter, Jonathan Ferziger, who's been following the case, and who told us that Alexander was not arrested, according to Sri Lankan police spokesman Rienzi Perera. Ferziger added that Moshe Buller, the private investigator who's been on the case, "presumably knows where he went, although he hasn't said so publicly."[Via Ars Technica]
